Trial Set In Death At Hotel

Man Accused Of Killing His Wife On Antigua Trip

March 25, 1996|By Pamela Cytrynbaum, Tribune Staff Writer.

John Earl Baughman will face two juries at his murder trial that is set to start Monday on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

The official jury is the impartial panel of Antiguan citizens who will judge him innocent or guilty in the May 1995 death of his wife, Velerie Joyce Baughman, who authorities say was pushed by her husband from the roof of a resort hotel.

Jurors will have but two choices: They will find John Baughman not guilty and set him free or find him guilty and sentence him to death by hanging.

Across the courtroom will sit the unofficial jury, made up of the 15 members of Velerie Baughman's family who attend every hearing and long have since reached their own verdict.

"We hope he's found guilty, and we're praying he'll get the death penalty," said Pam Dekker of Ft. Wayne, Ind., who at 35 is the second-oldest of Velerie Baughman's four grown children. "We're all going down there, all the kids, my aunts and uncles, their spouses, our cousins. We want to see how things go. We want to show we're not just going to let this drop."

Dekker and her siblings say they have waited long enough for what they think is as much their day in court as their stepfather's. Hearings and the trial date have been postponed several times, including once after Hurricane Luis tore through the small island in September of last year, destroying as much as 80 percent of the local real estate.

"It has been very frustrating and unsettling," Dekker said. "First it's happening, then it's not. We want to have this done with so we can mourn for our mother, which we haven't had a chance to do because we spend so much time worrying about the trial."

Baughman has made no public statements outside the courtroom, where he pleaded innocent and told the judge his wife's fall was a terrible accident.

His attorney, Gerald Watt, has said: "I have every confidence that with regard to the system of justice and the court, I will expect my client to get very fair and proper treatment. We have to go before a jury and juries are juries the world over."

Velerie Baughman, 55, was a customer service representative at 3M Co., where she had worked her way up with a high school diploma. She died after plummeting 99 feet from the roof of the eight-story Royal Antiguan Resort on May 27 last year.

Antiguan officials and her family contend her husband, John Baughman, 54, of Orland Park, pushed her to her death.

Baughman was a former suburban railroad police officer-turned salesman. The two met at a singles dance and married in February 1991.

Baughman, who pleaded innocent Jan. 10 during his arraignment before the Antiguan chief magistrate, insists his wife stumbled off the roof's edge as the two were tossing love notes to one another while on a romantic tropical vacation.

Witnesses said after Velerie Baughman fell, John ran down the stairs and knelt beside her still body, weeping, "Honey, honey, honey."

Dekker said when Baughman called the family to tell them about their mother's death, "he said it was their last night there. He said they were standing on a beautiful, tiled sun deck." In reality, she said, "the roof was a trash-filled maintenance roof with air-conditioning units, cigarette butts everywhere, an unsafe gate and a sign posted that said `No Admittance.' "

If he is convicted, "there is no other penalty but death by hanging," said Karen Nanton, a reporter covering the case for the local newspaper, The Daily Observer. "There is a great deal of talk about it. The public is looking forward to hearing what happens. It's unusual for us. We've never had an American tourist in this situation before."

If given the death penalty, he may appeal to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeals, then the Privy Council in London.

The case will be heard by High Court Justice Albert Redhead, Nanton said. The Antiguan justice system is bound by British common law.

Baughman begins his trial with the presumption of innocence. A jury will be chosen probably Monday morning from a pool of educated and professional members of the community. The trial is expected to last as long as two weeks, she said.

Chief Magistrate Murrio Ducille ruled in October that enough evidence existed to try Baughman after a preliminary inquiry. During the inquiry, which is like an American grand jury hearing, witnesses testified that they saw Velerie Baughman fall from the roof and heard her scream.

An Antiguan engineer testified that it was unlikely she fell because her body was found 14 feet from the building. Insurance agents testified that she had more than $200,000 in life and accidental death insurance in an estate her children estimated to be worth $750,000.

Wary of trusting a faraway criminal justice system, Velerie Baughman's family members have continually raised questions about the case, pushing for more investigation and aggressive prosecution because they believe John Baughman has beaten the American system before. This is the third time he has been accused of murder.

A Will County grand jury declined to indict him in the 1970 shooting death of his longtime friend and colleague Flossmoor Police Sgt. Dean Pence.

In 1985, a Cook County jury acquitted him of murder in the 1984 death of his first wife, Gertrude Baughman, 37, who was strangled and severely burned. John Baughman told police it was an accident, saying he and his wife were inspecting camping equipment in their Matteson garage when a camp stove overturned, spraying his wife with flaming fuel. Her thrashing about caused the throat injury, he said, though the coroner said she was strangled before she was burned.